Rwanda is gearing up to host the Masharket: Kigali International Content Market. It is scheduled to take place from November 7 to 9 during the Mashariki African Film Festival, which ends on the same date but begins earlier, on November 2.
In a note calling for submissions, organisers of the market said, their event “not only offers a lucrative avenue to monetize content but also fosters the exploration of new partnership opportunities, solidifying its status as an all-encompassing one-stop shop for industry professionals.”
It continues: “In celebration of the festival’s tenth anniversary, we extend a special invitation to Eastern African filmmakers (Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Uganda, South Sudan, Somaliland, Sudan, Ethiopia. Eritrea, Djibouti, DRC and Somalia) to submit their fiction, animation, and documentary film projects in development.
“The selected projects will undergo a comprehensive five-day workshop (two days before the market and three days during the market) to prepare the pitch deck, culminating in a one-day pitching event.”
Last year, in a response to New Times, the founder and executive director of the Mashariki Film Festival, Tresor Senga, explained why the festival needed to create a market.
“Mashariki started in 2005 with the aim of helping films produced in Rwanda to reach the international level of cinema,” he said, “but this did not solve the problems that still exist in the sector, including the fact that film producers and writers are not able to move their projects as they should.
“In order to find solutions to the existing problems in our industry, we thought of initiating a market that will operate during the Mashariki Film Fest and connect film producers and buyers.”
Details of the application requirements and process are provided here.
